Stakeholders under the aegis of the Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association (NISA) and the Association of Maritime Truck Operators (AMATO) have urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to focus in the New Year on provision of truck transit parks, port channel charting, waiver cancellation, amongst others.
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune exclusively in Lagos, President of NISA, Mallam Aminu Umar explained that although NIMASA championed the implementation of the nation’s cabotage regime in 2018, the indigenous ship owners expect to see a more aggressive implementation of the regime in 2019.
According to the NISA Chairman, “For we, the indigenous ship-owners, we hope to see that the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) is disbursed in 2019. This will cushion some of the financial issues many of the indigenous ship owners are going through.
“In addition, we expect to see a lot of support from the regulatory bodies, especially NIMASA, in the implementation of the Cabotage Act as it supports Nigerian owned vessels. What we saw last year was a passive implementation of the cabotage regime. We hope to see a more aggressive implementation this year.
“In 2019, we hope to see the total stoppage of the issuing of waivers to a non-owned Nigerian vessel and a non-registered Nigerian vessel.
“In addition, we hope that in the New Year, there will be a lot more investment in the channels leading to Nigerian ports so that most of the channels will be safe and navigable for operators. We have observed over the years that many of the channels leading to the nation’s ports are not well charted. Many of these channels in Lagos are uncharted, and in shipping, when a channel is not properly charted, it means it is not safe to navigate.
“So in 2019, we hope to see certain area of the Lagos port channel which is currently uncharted, to be charted, dredged and documented so that the insurance cover ship owners have will be valid. As it is, anytime we go through uncharted channels, our insurance cover becomes invalid because such uncharted areas are not documented.
“We have so many uncharted channels in Lagos ports, Warri ports in Delta State, Calabar port and Port Harcourt port in Rivers State.”
In a separate chat with the Nigerian Tribune, chairman of AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi stated that government should look at providing succor for many truck drivers who park on the roads day and night by providing Truck Transit Parks (TTP) for operators.
In his words, “In 2019, we need a modern and befitting TTP where trucks will stay before going into the port to load or discharge containers. The present situation where truck drivers queue on the roads for several days and night is not the best. These people are human beings and don’t deserve such.
“These truckers, because of the present situation at the ports, don’t sleep well. They don’t take their bath for several days. Yet these people stay on the roads day and night despite our very high insecurity issues.
“We also expect the NPA to introduce an automation system that will regulate the movement of trucks in and out of the ports. It is due to an absence of a regulation on when to come or not to come into the ports that has led to the chaos we currently have on our roads. It is due to the lack of automation that we have long queue of trucks on our roads leading to the ports. The present situation where every truck wants to come into the ports at the same time is not the best.”